"Dickson, Gordon - Stranger Txt" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

"Farewell!" choked Egbert, almost too overcome to speak. They broke contact; and James began to turn around. "Farewell, oh brave and gallant spirit!"

Resolutely, James completed his turn and began his march. Inside the window, at the desk, a heavy balding man with tired eyes straightened his glasses and began to read a report stamped TOP SECRET and headed PARTICULARS OF FORTHCOMING FLIGHT OF UN SPACE ROCKET x-1. He read steadily into the report as the sun crept across the sky,

After a while he stopped temporarily to rub his eyes. As he did, he caught sight of a snail which had just crawled across the sill from outside the window. It stood balanced on the edge. It was James, of course, and for a long second they looked at each other. Then the man turned back to the report.

James paused to catch his breath. The trip had been all of eleven inches and he had come at top speed.

Finally he collected himself and turned toward the man. The H. Sapiens' head was bent over a sheaf of paper; but whatever engrossed him there would be small potatoes to what James was about to hit him with. James look a deep breath.

"Huffle." he said. "Huffle. Huffle! Huffle, huffle, huffle. huffle..."

"James gave the huffle of a snail in danger— And nobody heard him at all."

A. A. Milne

E Gubling Dow f^T isten, ' said Sonny, snapping a glance at his

JL/father ' I heard something )ust now Noise like a car coming up the road to the place, here '

"I don't hear nothing," said George Weaver "No one coming calling at our farm at past midnight " He put his big, gray, wrinkled hand on the table Not striking it, just laying it out "Pass the spuds, girt "

"Here, Dad "

From beside the stove, Sonny's wife Betty came across the room with her apron whispering and the large oval blue-nmmed bowl in her hand She forked boiled potatoes onto the old man's plate

"Shut up," said Sonny ' I tell you I heard something '

They stopped for a moment, Betty standing by George's chair, George staring at his son, unwillingly yet curiously silent Outside the house, the plowed fields and the moonlit wood were silent The chilly spring night was silent

'Could've swore t heard something," said Sonny, reluctantly at last He sat back in the chair at the kitchen table, and under the white wash of light from the bright bulb in the ceiling, motion came back to the three of them

Betty took the potato dish back to the stove and set it down beside the burners George split his potato with a fork He looked at Sonny's thin face

"Thai murder mystery movie tonight got your head full of notions," he said

"Yes," said Sonny "If it was up to you, we'd never go to town "

"It ain't going to town, I mind It's staying up all night like this,' said the old man "Girl, where's the butter^"

"Right in the icebox behind you,' said Sonny "Come here and sit down, Bettv Let him get it his own self You haven't ate a thing yourself, yet "

"I don't mind," said Betty She had a voice as soft as the blue eyes in her small face "I'll sit in a minute "

"No, go ahead and sit down," said George "I guess my son told me my place here on the farm I've worked for forty years Go ahead and sit down "

"I'll get everything on the table first," said Betty She moved about the kitchen^ bringing things to the square, linoleum-covered table top

"I guess I'll eat and go to bed—" the old man was beginning, when Sonny cut him off, excitedly